Unofficial news and tips about Google

October 16, 2008

The New iGoogle, Publicly Launched

After months of painful testing, the new version of iGoogle has been launched for everyone in the US. iGoogle 2.0 moves the tabs to the left, brings a persistent Google Chat widget and it adds a canvas view that allows gadgets to become full-fledged applications.

"Canvas view allows developers to deliver richer content, games, and UI to users on iGoogle as well as the opportunity to monetize," explains Google. Not all the gadgets take advantage of the canvas view, but this page highlights some gadgets that can be maximized and the list includes: Google Reader, Google Calendar, Gmail, weather, Wall Street Journal and regular feeds. For example, the new Gmail gadget lets you read your messages and send replies directly from iGoogle, but it lacks some features that would've made it a good replacement for the full-featured Gmail: links and attachments are stripped from messages.

Google has been testing the new version of iGoogle for the past three months on a small sample of users and many of them complained about the new navigation interface.

"We're very excited about these changes because it makes iGoogle a more useful homepage and a better platform for developers. And this is just the beginning: expect to see more canvas gadgets created by developers and more new features on iGoogle soon. Not in the U.S.? Don't worry. We'll also be rolling out this updated version in other countries very soon," mentions Google's blog.

The next big thing for iGoogle is the support for OpenSocial that will make Google's personalized homepage more social.

266 comments:

I had the *new* igoogle enabled through the iGoogle sandbox. Now I don't want to be in the sandbox, so I disabled it...but I reverted back to the *old* iGoogle. How to I get the official *new* iGoogle?

Opt out no longer works. Apparently the folks at Google did not listen to those of us who liked iGoogle because of the ability to customize the interface... now we don't have that ability anymore. The new sidebar, for those of us who only have one page, just sits there with nothing else on it but one lousy link that says "home". I don't want multiple pages, and can't get rid of the sidebar, so I'll have to find an alternative.

Disabling the feed snippets doesn't bring back the option to expand them at will. I used igoogle constantly because I could read posts from one place by expanding the headline. Now I either get ONLY a headline or ONLY a preview and no way to get more at will. Please give us a choice here or, like many others, I will be moving on, which is difficult because I LOVED igoogle.

I can live with everything but gotta say, the left "Home" tab strikes me as a real step backward. (Old threads on the new iGoogle seem to imply that a LOT of people didn't like it, but it's been imposed nonetheless.)

If you've gotta include the left tab, please give us the option of suppressing it, minimizing it, resizing it... ANYTHING to restore the customary true full-screen footprint.

Please let us get rid of the tab on the left. All it does is show whats on my home page and takes op space for those things I already have displayed. It is really annoying. I too see no use for it (or at least HAVE no use for it).

Man, it may be faster, but links in my gmail messages don't show up. So, I have to load "full gmail" in order to click on a link in my message. In addition, I now have to see descriptions for each heading in my gadgets (wired top stories, slashdot, etc.). This takes up tons of space. How is this convenient? Is there a way to revert back to the old view?

GOOGLE IS TURNING INTO THE NEW MICROSOFT!!!! Way to go! Are you changing you address to Washington next? I HATE (yelled at the top of my lungs) iGoogle 2.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to concur with all the negative comments about the new iGoogle.

The side nav bar taking up a ridiculous amount of space (esp. for those of us who only use laptops).

It takes an extra step to expand or minimize the widgets.

Definitely a backwards move--I hope they give an option to keep the old version. They need to understand that this is like a utility--any changes should be phased in slowly and individually, not all at once.

NOOOOooooooooooo......... I experimented with this version in the sandbox and it SUCKED worse than anything that has ever sucked before.If anyone can find a way to get out of this, please, for the love of all things sacred, tell us!Worst...homepage...EVER.

This is absolutely the most STUPID thing Google has EVER done. This is a HORRIBLE design, and Google has just VIOLATED the most important page on the whole web: our own very personalized and custom home page, that we use every hour of the day.

I'm chiming in with a THIS IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! GET RID OF THE LEFT PANE! Why have you done this, Google? You even say in your press release that people didn't like the navigation... it baffles the mind. I didn't think such a simple change could make me so furious... guess I learned something about myself today. Things go back to the way they were, or I'm out.

I am in Canada, and I got the new page to display when I switched between Classic and iGoogle.

However, after I did some messing around in the settings, I now got the old one back. Just as well I guess. I have a "standard" screen at work, and a wide screen at home. I like the tabs on top, it's nice and clean that way. I don't like the left side bar as much.

Ok, after looking more carefully at my iGoogle page, it seems I don't have the +/- beside individual RSS items anymore. So does this mean I am still seeing v2.0 instead of "reverted back" to the old version?

I did take out the "show snippet" options in the settings. I am not seeing the side bar anymore. Hum...

Please please please! get rid of those useless tabs. They are redundant on multiple levels. First, there is no need for another app format between the small gadget size and the full size apps. Second, the full app sites already appear in their own browser tabs! That's right google, browsers already have tabs! This is redundant useless clutter. A stupid, stupid idea.

I don't mind innovation, but if a product is brand new, possibly not ready for prime-time or maybe just didn't have enough product testers to display frustration - you need to offer your customers the option to stay on the old platform that they have become accustomed to enjoying. Or at least offer them the option to switch new features on or off - and it's at their peril if they choose to stay on the old bandwagon. They might not be able to use the newest plugins or whatnot - but give people a choice before radically changing how their world operates.

What I specifically dislike? The side taskbar wastes space in my screen, and generally annoys me because the screen's unbalanced. If I could turn the sidebar off, I"d still be annoyed because under this new engine my Weather widgit has decided that I now need to see some extra pictures of the weather, and it needs to be more spaced out -- so now it takes up 2x the space; so there's more real estate lost. The Gmail interface wants to be more like full-gmail, but lacks normal features like the ability to CLICK LINKS! Or use shortcut keys. Or even click the GMAIL title and jump over to gmail.com to GET these features. I'd rather have the basic Gmail reader than this castrated monstrosity that just wants to be a pet of the iGoogle 2.0 project.

Give me the option to go back to my non-bloated and beloved start page, or I'll go elsewhere. I can only imagine the English-UK fix will work for a limited time before they bastardize the world.

OMG. What happened to give the user a CHOICE!? I HATE the TABS!!!!! It infuriates me so much I am SERIOUSLY considering changing my home page to Yahoo. The tabs on the left do nothing but take up space I want for other things. Why did I get "upgraded" without being asked if I wanted it??? LET THE USERs DECIDE how, where and if they want it the tabs!

Agree with most - lost landscape for a useless tab and can not personalize which is one of the great features of gmail - wow - super annoyed - at least give us the option to utilize this new format by opting out of the new format - may need a wider screen now that I lost 10% to a useless tab

Definitely badly put together, especially the gmail. The navagation for the most part sucks. I believe that you could have let the Google homepage users know what was happening and how to use this. Instead no "by your leave," no nothing. I am a big fan of Google and think you can do no wrong. Change the gmail. This is not good!

I'm trying to give them a chance and see what Google thinks might be good about this layout, but I can't see it. I've tried all suggested fixes, but can't get it back how I want. Pageflake may have to be my answer.

Don't like it. Left tab takes up way too much room, I actually want a version with no tab at all. And I want to shrink the height of the header area, where search box is. Also drag and drop gadget from one tab to another is broken.

What the #$%@#. All's I can get is one thing at a time. Is there no way to get back my nice organized little home page with a little of everything? Sucks. I have more to do today than deal with this nonsense surprise!

Very unfortunate. With all the negative feedback, you would have thought Google would have at least made the 2.0 look optional going forward...instead of shoving it down everyone's throat. Perhaps Google has forgotten what made the company successful to begin with...

I Hate the new Igoogle! I dont have the ability to view pictures through the expand. Or expand the summary to see wether or not i want to read the full story. The side bar is bull shit. Really sad I was a google advocate. Microsoft heres your chance.

first- I am not a luddite, I like new things, but this is not good. do not like that side bar at all- loved igoogle the way it was before- this stinks.

I really hope that they make it an option, because once the uk version goes to 2.0, I will have no choice... can't think with all that crap... and I don't like having to click two things to get to the correct view of my email inbox.

UGH!!!!!!! I hope you google-ites are reading these comments and taking the users input into consideration.

What do I think? My stomach lurched when I saw my homepage, and still does every time I load it. This new sidebar on the left just repeats everything that was on my homepage, is visually disruptive, and the fact that there is no option to remove it is frankly OFFENSIVE. Especially from a company like Google which has always been about freedom and accessibility. I liked iGoogle so much I had three accounts. This option might be nice for some people, but it's ruined the feeling of choice for me. Developers should consider the people who use iGoogle are a wide demographic; most of us don't have a million gadgets that we need to keep track of. Tabs along the top was much less disruptive to the browsing experience. I mean come on, it's ruined my theme, which I loved. Users above are right. A lot of the symmetry and harmoniousness of the page has been taken away. I just hope that the option to remove this sidepanel will be available soon, because I really do believe this company likes its users to be happy and doesn't want to lose them.

The one gadget I really like and use all the time is Portfolio Monitor 1.55. The new layout compresses the width of all the gadgets on my screen and now I have to use scroll bars to see everything in the gadget. I suspect this side nav business is a kind of "push" thing - users are going to be made to see things they neither want nor need.

I hate the new layout because there is no control over the location of the tabs. The insertion of tabs on the left steals important screen real estate from my preferred layout, and there is no control over the choice of whether to have top tabs or left menu.

Shame on google for having designed an inferior layout and allowing no user control.

You would think that Google would offer it's users, who are normally loyal to the company, a chance to keep something they loved, instead, not only do that "have technical problems" keeping people from accessing gmail for a day... but they throw this on us. I'll use it until the co.uk goes away, if it's not fixed by then, I'm gone.

Unlike the other commentors, I actually like the potential of this new sidebar.

I agree with the others though that keeping the old look is a must. I'd also like to suggest that there be a way to hide the sidebar like Google Reader.

All in all, if Google can make it so the sidebar is hidden by default, is enabled only in certain tabs then I think it's a step ahead overall as the drop down menus allows for easier navigation through lots of gadgets.

I'd also like to add that I feel that this version is much slower to load or at least feels that way so you might want to look into that too. My guess is that the view of waiting for the gadgets to load in the sidebar causes that.

Here's why I don't like it, it serves no purpose for my needs and takes up real estate that I enjoy. I like real estate. In IE and Firefox my address bar, menu and buttons are all on the same line. This maximizes my browsing experience without having to be in full-screen view. I have one tab with three gadgets; Bookmarks, Calendar(with weather) and GMail. I only use the GMail gadget to see if I have mail. If I have mail I go to my GMail page. For me, making a gadget full-page turns it into a page, not a gadget. Clicking on the GMail gadget on the left is no less difficult than clicking the gadget itself to get to the GMail page, and using the GMail page gives me full contact and mail functionality if I should happen to need it. The gadget is fairly limited but admittedly would suffice for most of what I do.

With only three gadgets and one tab, this thing has absolutely no point and is merely in the way. I can easily see how someone who has a big screen and a bunch of tabs and gadgets might find this functionality appealing, and I applaud the thought and work put into it for those who can benefit from it.

But this is something that obviously does not appeal to the masses and as stated in the posted article, complaints were aired long ago and obviously ignored. I really don't understand why. I did some BASIC and COBOL long ago and know nothing of newer programming, but I don't see how making this an option under 'Edit this tab' could be so difficult. Why the option wasn't considered as part of the roll-out to see how many users liked it and disliked it, is beyond crainial discombobulation. The idea that Google intentionally tossed a known hated feature into it's user's laps makes my brayn asplode.

Oh and congrats, Google, on your trading boom. Someone recently told investors, "We have a duty and responsibility to run Google well." By the comments I'm seeing on the Blogosphere, this isn't happening on the user end of the business. I hope investors are looking at the blogosphere.

Wow, how did Google NOT know the Home Tab is THE WORST IDEA EVER? Didn't anyone at Google do a focus test? The Home Tab is catastrophically bad. I've been loyally using iGoogle as my homepage on all my PCs and all the PC's I manage at work.

The easiest fix is using Yahoo! as my homepage now and for all my work PCs as well. I will not only no longer recommend iGoogle but I will advise against it. This is phenomenally poor form. No options to get rid of this eyesore spacehog? Really?

I hate it. I like scanning the titles for articles and deciding which ones I want to read. I do NOT need to see two preview lines for every article I know I'm not interested in. That's cluttered and annoying!

I could live with the tabs on the left. What I can't live with is all the other controls taken away.

I like scanning a list of headlines only. If something catches my eye, I could click on the +/- to get a preview. If it really interested me, I could click on the headline and go to the full story. That's gone. Scanning is now useless with previews for EVERY STORY there.

If I wanted to see/hide a full module, that used to be one click. Now, I have to click once and find "minimize" in the context menu. The only buttons are now "maximize" and "menu." HORRIBLE!!

I'm replacing .com with .ie for two weeks, since they haven't ruined igoogle for Ireland yet. After two weeks, I'm done. netvibes looks compelling enough and far less "evil" than what I was forced to use today. Thanks for the warning btw.

You're my favorite search engine and that's why you are also my homepage. I have loved you for years -ever since you became the alternative to the ever annoying and ridiculously flashy Yahoo! that only seemed concerned with selling me stuff I didn't want. You were different Google, you anticipated my needs in a discreet, pleasant way with your oh-so-smart text ads. For all of this I have loved you and remained loyal for years. But today, you ripped my heart out. You put the needs of "developers" ahead of mine. In my eyes you're still the best, but how could you take advantage of our relationship like this? I mean, I love you but I just don't know if I trust you anymore. It's going to take some time to build this trust back. If you want me and don't want us to break up, please remove the left tab bar and the two line previews that take up so much precious space on the home page . . . space that used to be ours, Google . . . space that left us free to focus on each other.

As said here already, it's messy, the left column takes too much space and Google doesn't seem to listen to users. Also, now Google is more Yahoo!-like with this update also. Sometimes "less is more" in layout. And "make it simple, stupid" as a software design saying goes.

I'll try it, but so far I hate it. I liked it the way it was before. I'm not a developer; why should I have to have something just because it's nicer for developers? The old way should be an option for everyone.

I DO like the tabs on the left. Most of my screens now are 16:10 or 19:9. making better use of the width of the screen while freeing some vertical space.What I miss is the ability to move gadgets from on tab to another.

Google.... if you do not get rid of that stupid nav bar on the left... and let me make up my own mind about how I want my page to look... I am out of here. After all of the comments and complaints about the beta, this is one of the most heavy handed things I have ever seen a company do... what are you thinking?

BOO! I despise the new interface. At the very least G should build in a button to toggle back to the old layout. I tried "javascript:_dlsetp('v2=1');" but that did not bring back the old layout - maybe Google turned it off.

If Google does not allow the option to use the old page or at least make the new page more useful to me, I will simply stop using it as a home page. I can always bookmark Gmail, Calendar, etc. I just won't have the convenience of the widgets working the way I like.

BTW: re OpenSocialIf I want my browser to be an interface to social sites, I'd use Flock instead of FF.I would not object (assuming the old igoogle) to having a tab with interfaces to social sites, so I could view when needed instead of having them shoved in my face.

Hate it! Loathe it! Despise it! abhorrent, abominable, anathematic, defamatory, despicable, detestable, execrable, fastuous, flagitious, hateful, heinous, invidious, loathsome, nauseous, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, opprobrious, outrageous, repellant, repugnant, repulsive, vile! Make it go away! Let us use the old version without making us feel like Luddites: "Well, for those who don't *want* to innovate or *can't handle* new technology, here's a way to keep with the same tired old display, but we don't think you'll like it very much."

Tabs on the left chew up screen real estate - we don't all have 21" wide-screen monitors. There was nothing wrong with tabs on the top. Why the compelling need to break something that's not broken?

If I wanted the first few lines of a blog entry eating up my vertical space, I would have asked for it. I didn't. Headline summary with expand/collapse is just fine!

What the hell's the point of having links to the gadgets when you get all the gadgets on the tab displayed at the same time? Oh, right, because you chewed up so much vertical space that I can no longer see all my gadgets at once.

So, what language will I have to use once this gets forced on the English(UK) users?

1) Let users decide whether the tabs are at the top, left side, or disabled altogether.2) Let users decide whether they want Snippets displayed or not, if they don't revert to +/-.3) Restore links! I want to click my emails, and articles, from iGoogle and have them open in a new tab!

Hate the new left Nav bar for my Tabs. The whole point of having a tab is to condense into tabbed sheets of paper. thx for the UK suggesstion, i will roll with that till they change back -- and if not, classic view for me...

I agree with all the complaints stated above, and would like to add that users should ALSO be able to select whether they want gadgets to show in this new "canvas" form or not. I hate the way Gmail opens automatically in this new frame, because when I go to my inbox, I want to see ALL the features. The "canvas" version is terrible.

HOW TO GET RID OF THE LEFT HOME BAR:http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/521/if you have firefox, get the extension "remove it permanently"it will let you satisfyingly click to remove that damn thing never to returnhopefully google will fix this soon and you won't need to keep the extension forever, though it is useful for other similar annoyances

Holly CRAP this sucks! WTF google? What the hell were your 'usability' people thinking? That it would be ok to waste the left 2 inches of screen, showing me whats in a tab, when I CAN SEE WHATS IN THE TAB BY LOOKING AT THE DAMN SCREEN IN FRONT OF ME! Also, what the hell happened to the feeds? There is no more little plus symbol (+) next to the articles, forcing me to open a ton of tabs to read all the feeds. I loved having everything on one single page, its why I used iGoogle instead of Yahoo. This is more like Yahoo than it needs to be. Let us move the tab location, and bring back full feeds of the articles! Damn.

I completely agree with all the comments above about the sidebar. The old iGoogle was everything I wanted and needed. I was able to opt out before but now that doesn't work so I switched to the UK version. Not having an option to at least opt-out of the sidebar is evil.

Sorry Google. You really screwed this one up. Your left tabs bar is awful and making us preview our gmail on the page is wrong. No warning, no choices, nothing. Well, no one is forcing any of us to use it so if we don't like it, we should all just let them know and use something else. Remember, they need us more than we need them. I'm changing my default page back to the standard Google and removing igoogle. When they are ready to give us choices again, maybe I'll be back. Or maybe I'll try Yahoo...

The persistence of which gadget you clicked is SO ANNOYING. Say I click a stock in Google Finance or Gmail gadgets, navigate away to a different page, then click my home button (to go back to my iGoogle homepage) - the stupid this goes back to the gadget I had open!!! This isn't the desired behavior. When I go home in my browser I want to go to the general iGoogle, not whichever stupid gadget I navigated to last. This just causes extra work for me. Not to mention the two gadgets I use most (Google Finance and Gmail) are so feature poor that I still have to navigate to the full versions. All you've done is added extra clicking for me, both coming and going, and it's not appreciated.

I don't like the Side Tabs because they take up to much space on smaller computer screens.(1024x768 or smaller). At least give us the option of disabling them. I don't want to have to go to a 2 column layout and loosing 1/3 of the gadgets that I use.

The most useful feature of iGoogle (for me at least) was removed: The ability to get an overview of dozens of newsfeed headline, and if some look useful, expand them to read more.

Now I can either get the first few lines of ALL articles (most of which I never want to read) and make is so I can no longer get an overview of all the articles OR I can get just the headlines, but then I have to click the link to read more and see if I really want to read this.

What was wrong with the expandable articles? I loved that!

I'm currently looking for an alternative that allows me to do just this, and if I can't find one, I'm gonna have to build my own. I can't believe they're not giving me the option to keep the old layout...

Regarding the expandable articles from feeds: you probably didn't notice that feeds can be expanded by clicking on the "maximize" icon. You'll get a Google Reader-like application that has two UI options: expanded view (all articles are expanded) and list view (articles are collapsed).

Google, How could you launch the new iGoogle without letting users have at least the option to keep the functionality as it was? There are tons of complaints in the link that was posted in the above article. The users were commenting about how bad it was back in July and yet, in all your wisdom, you decide to lay this steaming turd on all iGoogle users and not even make the changes necessary to satisfy the reasonable complaints.

I used to trust Google to do the right thing, but this incident has just broken that trust.

Seriously, all you big companies are alike. So arrogant. You all think you know what's best for your users. you tell all your users that they come first and that you'll listen to them and everything. You even invite them to take a sneak peek at your new stuff and to give honest feedback. Then what do you do when most of them tell you it sucks? You force it on everyone anyways! Its almost like if you see negative feedback from us, you think we really don't know what we're talking about and that we're just too stupid to understand your "big picture". Honestly, why even bother asking for feedback if you're not gonna listen anyways?

As for myself, I have two major issues with this new version of igoogle.

1. Tabs on the left side, drives me crazy. I normally have my browser window open as a small window. With the tabs on the left side now, that makes me have to scroll horizontally to see everything. Horizontal scrolling = BAD! Makes baby jesus cry.

2. Only seeing a two line description of subject in a feed. Big flippin deal. Two whole lines. Now to see the rest of the article, I have to click on the link and go to another site. WTF, the whole reason I loved igoogle was because I could just click the expand button and read the whole thing right there without having to go to another site. Give us back the expand button! PLEASE.

I really HATE the new interface. Not only do I now loose 1" of screen space on the page, now I have to click around to expand a link. Also, now everything appears smaller. Thanks a lot! My screens on my PC and my laptop are already small enough, thanks to moving the tabs to the left, my content is now smaller! I really hate the new interface and wish that Google would have offered it as an option instead of just changing it. My mom always told me: Just because you can do something does not mean that you should. I love using Google, I think that it is fantastic, but I really HATE this new change.

Looks like Google tested this amid rants from test subjects and went ahead with it anyway. Thanks for not listening to your users Google. It made me realize that all the bad things people say about you are actually true.

The page was nicely balanced, now the sidebar makes it skewed. Also, more annoying is that it navigates away from the main page to gmail whenever I click on a mail in my preview (even though I told it to open up in a new window). And then remembers that for when I reload the webpage!

BUT. For now I have a solution that works, hopefully until Google sorts themselves out. I am using the .co.uk igoogle webpage instead!! I hope they will delay releasing in the UK because I'll be very unhappy if they don't.

I guess my searches will be bad until then since I am in the US, oh well. Sigh.

"We've been gathering input on the new features for several weeks from this group, usability testing, statistical analysis, and survey data. All of this feedback is important to us and while we weren't able to respond to all of them, I want to assure you we've been listening.

The new iGoogle features went through the same development process that all our products do: we prototype them, and put them through a vigorous set of usability tests and experiments to make sure we are doing the right thing for users. The iGoogle features we're launching today went through this exact process and we've made changes along the way based on feedback from users and developers. Specific examples of the impact of this group: * A narrower navigation area on the left side of the page. * An option to remove the snippets displayed with feeds. * Gmail reply added was added as soon as possible.

Google just changed mine over on at least two accounts, and I am NOT HAPPY.Also, this trick: javascript:_dlsetp('v2=0') doesn't give me the old interface as some have reported it will. Using a non-US URL or language setting won't work for long either, as Google has announced plans to roll out this change worldwide soon.

I wrote a lot of my own gadgets, and now the narrower column width due to the moving of the tabs to a sidebar have screwed up my custom gadgets. I though the whole idea of iGoogle was a USER_CUSTOMIZABLE page. Well, Google just screwed up my "custom" page royally!

Not only that, but iGoogle runs unacceptably slow on both my work computer and my home computer now. Mouse response is ridiculous.

GMail's (not so) new interface crashes both computers (Win2k at work, Ubuntu at home, Firefox 2 on both) every time I try to come back to the main screen from reading an email. At least I can revert to the old GMail interface, though it's a stupid process where I have to load the new interface first to get a link to click on to get to the old interface. The new interface also hogs up computer resources and runs much slower. I guess my older 512 MB maxed-out memory hardware just isn't good enough for Google's services any more. Damn shame.

There should be persistent preference settings in GMail and in iGoogle where the user can choose the preferred interface. It is silly that I can set a preference for GMail to always use SSL but not to always use the older interface. I don't understand why Google isn't providing such an obvious feature.

Well, Google can be the new Microsoft if that's what they want. I'll tell you this: I don't allow Microsoft to dictate to me when it's time to upgrade my computers, and I won't allow Google or anyone else to do it either. If Google won't give me reasonable choices, it's NetVibes here I come. And I'll set up my own mail server, which what I had planned to do before GMail came along and I got lazy because it did everything I wanted my own mail server to do for me.

For those of us using classic Macintosh OS (many of us in the graphic arts/publishing industry), the new interface gives us ONLY the left tab menu and top search bar. The rest of the page is...blank. Admittedly clicking on an item on the sidebar does give me that one item, but that really isn't what anyone wants in a homepage. If I reboot to OSX, I get a page I can see, but I can't be doing that all day. Big thanks to the people who provided us with the temporary fix of changing the language to "English UK". Google, please leave this choice available, perhaps with a language choice called something like "english classic" that will let us keep our old-style igoogle page.

- Let the user decide where he wants the his tabs. A tab positioned on the left may be good for people that have widescreen monitors, where vertical space becomes more precious.

- The Gmail like chat is better than the flash GTalk gadget, but I still prefer it to be in a gadget, where you can choose to have it or not, and at the location you want. It seems that placed the chat on the left navigation bar just to fill the empty space.

- The canvas view is not being used by me. The Google Reader site is still so much better than the Google Reader canvas view. Same for Gmail. Also when using Gmail, sometimes I dont want to leave my iGoogle main view due to some information that i need to read/copy from there to place in the email I am composing.

I am totally frustrated with the move of the tabs to the left hand corner. I have 5 tabs and could view everything easily on a single screen for each tab. Now, I must scroll the equivalent of several pages since the new bar takes so much space. If there is no way to return to the old (top bar) version, I will stop using igoogle as my home page. BTW, I tried using the UK language trick but they said it was just temporary and evidently, the time has expired since it does not work.

Update: It *DID* switch back to the old version after a short time. I guess I will hang in there until they either make that change permanent or, if it is dropped and no other alternative is provided, I will just switch my home page.

Sorry about this herd, but I really, really like it. Don't say things like "everyone hates it" when there are tens of millions of people using it who haven't submitted negative comments.

Kudos to those who are making constructive suggestions to improve the new iGoogle. I totally agree that those who don't like the left tab should have some way of minimising it or restoring a form of the earlier functionality, but the new interface really does give you a new way of using the page. My screen is small (1024x768) and I've simply switched to a two column layout and all is well.Google has never forced anyone to use its products and has never forced anyone to stay. For those who wish to switch to Netvibes, Pageflakes, Live.com, my.Yahoo or any other of the personal portals that are out there, then feel free. The web is a competitive market, choice is good.

This is worthless. My page is all screwed up now and has less functionality in my opinion. The pathetic sidebar is worthless, I know what is on my page because I put it there...I do not need a list on the side that takes up space. The gmail widget now sucks...plain and simple. I think this new version is terrible...maybe I need to find a different home page.

I'm not sure I have a strong opinion one way or the other yet but the changes appear to have an impact on memory... The longer I leave the iGoogle page open, the more memory it hogs/requires. Does anyone know how to fix this? It only started happening after the changes were implemented to iGoogle.

When I turned my computer on this morning, the new iGoogle was there. After discovering that I couldn't change it back, I spent some time searching for a new homepage. A few minutes ago I restarted my computer and the old iGoogle was back. I hope they leave it that way or at least make it an option, otherwise I may have to find a different homepage.

I'm actually quite happy Google added the left tab. It's not as if I like the tab though. What I like is the Remove It Permanently extension someone's mentioned. Does a great job getting rid of the iGoogle left nav tab -- as well as a lot of other annoying things on the web. Kudos to Jerome O'Flaherty!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521

And a bit of advise for the Google team -- the first rule of usability is LESS IS MORE.

I read about this site on John Chow http://www.43marks.com - its like Igoogle but better cuz you can add you own bookmarks and the bookmarks can be websites not just gadgets and RSS feeds although you can upload your favorite RSS feeds to. Its free and totally customizable. Plus you don't have to login to see your bookmars and RSS feeds

I don't like the tabs on the side. I had all my pages set to display without having to scroll. With vertical navigation tabs, every page now scrolls. I would really prefer it if Google would:1. give users prior notice to changes2. the ability to choose vertical or the old horizontal tabs

I don't mind the other changes. But who really cares if border corners are rounded or not? These "improvements" are like the ones they made to the Google calendar widget. I didn't like those changes, so I don't use the widget anymore.

Experienced some terrible java(?) problems yesterday with very slow cursor changes, momentary screen and full browser freezes but I suspect some of this was due to bad code and some to Iceweasel's java implementation.Things are working much better today but the slow cursor changes continue.

I like the changes to iGoogle and the implementation of Canvas view. This evening, the 'show this story' button was restored and I'm glad that was done. Oh, and the page, in general, looks fine on my 15" laptop.

Hate it!! Waste of space with new left column and what happened to the small window with just headlines? Now the icon opens a new window which is a waste of my limited time. Again, I reiterate, I Hate It!!! Revert or give the option of old or new! Now looking for a new home page...bye bye Google.

I don't understand why links in email do not work with this new format. I must not open full gmail to use email. I do like the ability to perform actions from the main window, but it seems very silly that email links do't work.

From what was said earlier, using the English (UK) is a temporary fix to return to the original homepage setup. When they screw that up too I'll be looking for a new home page. When you give me no choice (as to tab location), then I have no choice but to move on!

I agree with the Anonymous above, there should be a choice to tab location.

Although i personally love the new position.

Two things that are strange though:1) I can't drag and drop gadgets onto other tabs2) When a tab only has one gadget, and is capable of being maximised, it should do so by default (or at least provide the option. i like having a Gmail tab)Oh, well, actually, 3) no persistent chat interface D:

i HATE HATE HATE HATE the new page design. i only have ONE tab, my home tab, why am i forced to keep an obsolete menu bar that takes up a large portion of my page AND, since i am using a 9 inch screen, squishes everything to almost non readable size?

GOOGLE, MAKE THE NEW DESIGN OPTIONAL! I am very seriously considering Yahoo for a new homepage unless this problem is fixed ASAP

Nothing like taking a perfectly good, usable interface and turning it into a piece of crap. I suppose some user interface expert on drugs and with cranio-rectal insertion got paid an exorbiant sum for this abomination. Not only is the UI garbage, but an incredibly large number of the most useful gadgets now misbehave. Good going Google! You've almost caught up with Yahoo in terms of arrogant stupidity.

I hate the new tab design. Since igoogle is my own home page, I'm quite able to navigagte easily without a menu. I prefer the better space with the old tabs. How about giving users the option of tabs on the left or tabs on the to?

PLEASE give us the option to use the old igoogle interface or the ability to disable the new left sidebar. The sidebar puts the whole page off centre and chops the right side off of some gadgets. Most annoying, I'm looking at other homepages. I really enjoyed the old igoogle.

Please bring back traditional tabs, without making us jump through language settings hoops.How about a first-time-visit question to ask where the user prefers them?I left MyYahoo over there changes that I didn't like, so I suppose I can go to MSN livespaces next.

I opened my personalized Google home page last night to discover that some one had stolen my precious screen real estate. All of my Google gadgets that I rely on daily were scrunched towards the right side of the screen because the nice clean tab line which ran across the top of the screen was now running down the left side of my screen.

I thought perhaps I had somehow messed up my configuration when playing with my gadgets and searched in vain for the setting to let me change it back. Eventually I went looking for help and stumbled across a Google post about new features http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=107482&topic=13918

This leads me to wonder just how much Google understands the computer market place. Laptops (traditionally smaller screens than desktops) are now outselling desktops. Recently the laptop market has been swept along with netbooks (lighter, smaller versions of laptops with screens which are cheaper and have a smaller overall resolution that laptops). Ultimately this means that screen space to display the things consumers want to see is a valuable commodity.

And into this market Google introduces… a menu system that consumes significantly more screen real estate than the previous version.

BTW: This new menu system has evidently impacted things like the Google finance pages and added the need for an additional click in order to get basic information for the stocks I follow, something I do numerous times a day.

(I had comments on the GMail widget page, but they were either removed or don't go back far enough. I just posted this one as a replacement.)

I'm posting to reiterate that this change is worse than unhelpful. It (and the rest of the iGoogle design) completely break my Google experience. You've built up a tremendous amount of goodwill over the years, but I'm willing to defend odd choices as long as the usability is still there. The problems I have can be traced directly to these issues:

1) No way to bring GMail previews back to one line each. I only want to immediately read one out of every 5-10 emails or so that comes into my inbox, so I used to have the preview set as high as it could go. I logged in the other day to find that the widget now took up way too much space. I had to bring it down to 5 just to be of any use, but now I'm looking for alternatives.

2) I use iGoogle as a portal to look at a lot of things I want to keep track of. I don't want widgets to expand to take up the full screen and hide the rest of iGoogle, especially since it saves that state when the browser closes. Whatever happened to my "Open links in new window" setting? The number of times I've opened an email, then closed to tab, then realized I had to go back to iGoogle and find the minimize tab again to get back to where I was is incredibly frustrating. Yes, maybe it's something to just get used to, but this is basic usability and it's rapidly making me look for something else.

3) The links on the side are the least of the issues, but represent the overall problem. I've loved Google and iGoogle for years because it was simple, clean, and when I load up the page it's very easy to see exactly what I'm looking for. I am not looking for a rich desktop application, I'm looking for information. Everything I've loved to use iGoogle for has been because I can find what I'm looking for and forget about the fact that I'm on the web, looking at different sources. The new menu violates that simple rule by being incredibly visible, distracting and unhelpful.

I'm giving this setup another few days while I explore alternatives, but it's rapidly getting to the point where I'm just going to switch to something without as many features just to get away from the frustrations. Probably Feedly or something similar.

I hate the new homepage too. The kind of hate that makes me want to pick up my computer and throw it through the window, right at that genious whose idea it was to put that tab there. Now my page looks so awkward. I'll be using the canada version for as long as it's "normal", but if that changes, without google giving us a chance to get rid of that dumb tab, then I will probably go back to Yahoo.

Ok, I'm not going to say anything here that hasn't already been said but I strongly dislike the change to the tab on the left... never had a use for the tab in the first place, but at least it was minimal at the top of the page. Now it seems to take up nearly half of my page. This angers me.

Also, having to find my way into full gmail in order to click on attachments, as others above have already noted, is a needless hoop for me to jump thru.

I appreciate all the work that Google has put into making this a great site, but if things don't change soon I will be looking elsewhere.

"We're very excited about these changes because it makes iGoogle a more useful homepage and a better platform for developers." -- My widgets are broken and the new look, which appeared *totally* out of the blue, was extremely disruptive. Same is true for Google Apps intereface, for which I pay. -- I'm glad the developers you are courting are happy, but I think you should strive to make things useful for your customers first and foremost. If this is the scheme by which Google will be releasing supposedly useful updates to function and interface, I will definitely reconsider continuing my subscriptions to Google services. -- It's sad, really - I never expected to see flaming posts accusing Google of "arrogant stupidity." How about giving this another try at marketing??